Lemondrop

On March 31st, we got our first round of day old chicks. We were not planning on getting any chicks until the end of April, but when a friend let me know that there was an over hatching of our favorite breed, Salmon Favorelle, we jumped on the opportunity.

Last summer that same friend gifted us a Salmon Favorelle chicken that we named, Lemon. She is the SWEETEST chicken, who may think she’s a dog. Anytime we are outside she is near us or under us if we are working in the dirt in any way. All of the chicks were given a “Lemon” name because it sounded fun!

Ok, back to the chicks, they were hatched on Sunday the 28th, shipped the 29th and arrived the 31st. We got the call around 7am that the chicks were waiting for us at the post office, after the boys finished breakfast we jumped in the van and turned the heat WAY up so it would be nice and warm for our chicks. I was let in to the post office early so the chicks wouldn’t sit waiting for too long. The postwoman was so happy that we came so quickly as it usually makes her said to hear them peeping all day as they wait for their owners to come. I walked out with a tiny little box full of 8 babies and wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. :)

Now granted, we knew that three chicks were going to a coworker, but it still felt so unknown because we have never done this so I may have questioned our decision for awhile longer.

We watched the chicks behaviors during the day and chose by the end of the day which birds would go to a new home, they left shortly after dinner.

Five little cuties all fluffy and yellow and adorably clumsy were home and in our brooder box. I got particularly attached to a little one we named Lemondrop. She was sweet, calm and snuggly. Little did I know that there was a reason for her calm temperament, only 48 hours later, we woke to find that little Lemondrop had died in the night. Tears were shed by all of us as we processed her death…it was Good Friday.

I had to tell each boy that our little chick had died and walk them through their grief. There is a silver lining to this story though, little Lemondrop’s death opened up a really good conversation for us. We know in concept that death is a part of life, especially if you are choosing a homesteading life, but we had never experienced a loss like this before, I have personally lost grandparents but the boys were very small when that happened, so this was their first experience.

Each boy had their own questions and concerns and we had a lot of good chats throughout the morning. We wrapped Lemondrop up and placed her in a Perfect Bar box (Henry’s idea) to bury later on once Daddy got home from work. She had the sweetest paul bearers who carefully placed her in the ground, covered her with dirt and said a few sweet words. The conversation we kept returning to was how Jesus’ friends and family must have felt when he died, on Good Friday, all those years ago. The sadness and pain of losing their friend, a person they loved more deeply than we loved Lemondrop, Mary + Joseph’s son, dead. They didn't know the whole story like we do now…what HOPE was to come in just a couple of days. I’m thankful that we were able to learn deep things through the loss of a chick and learned to honor the life of even a small bird.